Open Eyes

It all starts with open eyes, I think. That’s what led to the limo today. To the gathering of people. To the tears.

Once upon a time there was a man with muscular dystrophy. He is confined to a wheelchair, and he was in dire straits. He lived in an upstairs apartment and had to depend on others to carry him up and down the stairs. Needless to say, he didn’t get out much. The apartment was over his mother’s garage, a two-story affair made of concrete block. His mother’s house had burned a long time ago, and his mother was no longer living. He just didn’t have much.

This man did have a computer, though, and through the computer, he made friends with a woman in Canada. Who was incensed by the conditions in which he lived. And started making phone calls from Canada to my little town. But no one would help.

Enter a home health care service. Who walked in and saw that the man’s residence should probably have been condemned. Who couldn’t even offer home health care because of the conditions in which the man lived. They cried. No one should have to live the way he did. So they acted.

Going back to their office, they started making phone calls. They refused to give up. And finally…FINALLY…things started to happen. Local service agencies sent workers. A motel owner donated a room for the man to live in temporarily. Habitat for Humanity went to work. They gutted. And fumigated (twice). And filled dumpsters. And worked for six weeks straight on what had originally been presented to them as the need for a handicapped ramp.

The result was today. 50+ people waited for the man to return to the home he had not seen in over a month. He had not seen the renovated first floor. Or the new, donated furniture. The Murphy bed, because the place is so small. The entry tile, worked with his initials. He had not seen all the people who had worked on his behalf. As one woman from the health care service put it, “I don’t know how he must feel, but I’m so excited, I could bust.”

When the limo arrived, the man was, needless to say, overwhelmed. There were balloons. There was a picnic to welcome him. Even his dog had been sent out for grooming. And from it all, there has arisen the idea for a non-profit agency to help the handicapped in our area BEFORE their circumstances get as bad as his were. All this because those home health care workers opened their eyes and saw a need.

In Matthew 25:40, Jesus says to those who follow Him, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” I thank God that, in our community, there were people with the eyes to see the need that this man had, and the heart to get involved. One of the gifts that the owner of the home got when he returned was a Bible, courtesy of the local Gideons. I don’t know how many people who attended his picnic were believers, but I do know that today, if they looked, they saw Jesus.

Clif, I am crying my eyes out. What a wonderful story. I do volunteer work for an agency that helps frail seniors stay in their own homes, and while I’m on the board of directors, there are many, many volunteers who pack boxes of necessities and other things for these frail seniors. There are also hot meals and help with baths and ramps and fixups, etc. It started as a grass roots effort from a retired minister and some others, and it spread from there. But what an inspirational story! Loved reading this.